


How the Wind Carries The Snow

by ARandomRock



Category: Kingdom Hearts (Video Games)
Genre: First Meeting, Monologue, Restrospection, Snow, pre-kh2
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-12
Updated: 2021-01-12
Packaged: 2021-03-16 05:46:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,797
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28701657
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ARandomRock/pseuds/ARandomRock
Summary: Assigned to the Beast's Castle World, Xaldin breaches the labyrinthine forest where the snow is endless. Unfazed by wolves and unable to feel the intended deterrence of the forest Xaldin steels his own way of handling missions. They had no hearts, but clutching onto their own individuality and the thought processes, was something sacred. Such a resolve had reached the owner of the castle as goes to guard his entrance. Unable to understand the concept of a 'Nobody' and falling for confidence, he lowers his defence, and Xaldin smiles.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 1
Collections: Pluto's Zine Works





	How the Wind Carries The Snow

**Author's Note:**

> Made for Xaldin Zine, the art I did of the zine is at the bottom
> 
> Beta'd by PocketWhirlwind here on Ao3!

Soft flakes tickled the shoulders of his coat, each one mercilessly flicked off with a glove hand. Even though this task was a futile one, as soon as the snowflakes began to form a line they were gone. He could’ve just asked the wind to move the snowflakes off, but his hand was more effective, and more satisfying. The Nobody had a hunger that he theorised could only be cured with his confidence in domination. His target who had sealed himself in a castle and constructed this brutal exterior of trees and rock was a triple fold measure of his theory. To make it through the harsh snow and winds would hone his element. To know that even nature and its defences would bend under his thumb. As will his grip on the Beast’s heart.

So far, however, it had been tough but not unsatisfactory. 

Perhaps that was the word of the day.This forest was a maze of paths and the weaving lattice of branches above allowed only rudimentary glances of what direction the castle was. It drained the hope of a merchant as they approached the gate. Xaldin could see the tracks in the snow where they had given up or were claimed by the snow. There was a thought this forest with its stark coldness and labyrinth paths was made by the owner. A self made barrier from the master of the castle. Only a beast with a heart could layer trees above to block out the sun but allow snow to trickle in. It kept the wind from biting at the skin like a wolf but dense enough for darkness to swallow the distant trees.

There was something tasteful in taking the outside route instead of just a portal to the gate.

What bit the Nobodies’ skin was something different, something he no longer understood or, perhaps even wanted too. On instinct with the breeze, one whirlwind lance was gripped hard and then cut through the air behind him. Nothing but broken, torn leaves fell down. Pausing to try make sure the Beast’s castle was still looming in the brief openings from the trees, Xaldin began to follow the eternal blizzard's movements. Watching flakes fall into the snow, there was a wonder if he had a heart that this is where he would give up and fall into despair. There was a sense of paranoia on the outside that nipped at his skin, he could hear faintly a name of the past being passed about in the wind. Memories of a time before came but without a heart had no place to sit and stir. 

Following the fallen leaves across the canopy, this forest of illusions, indeed this forest leading to the castle was made to be rose vines around one’s heart and bleed it dry, to wean out the intentions of the person. Only a creature devoid of love yet retained a heart enough to express it could conjure such a place. As one without a heart however, the intruder could pass through like a breeze between the leaves with a sense of superiority over this affair.

Vexen would comment that such an unscientific conclusion would probably be nothing but mere projection of chasing Kingdom Hearts. Yet this was not the yearning he wanted for. It gave him a poor taste in his mouth as it served the Organization to be boiled down to simply what they have not. On the opposite end, Saix would recommend that these linking of what was lost and what others have was a fruitless, empty task, a distraction forms solving their own actual goal. Rolling his fingers and hand clutching a snowflake hard in his fist. Both of them work and are blinded by a singular thought. You cannot puppet those with hearts by pure ice and cold logic nor could you act effectively by simply othering those with a heart. 

He was assigned this world because this was a job only the wind could do. The wind that churred up Vexen’s ice to bite at the skin of travellers with no real body for them to slash their weapons at. The wind that covered their tracks in silence that would not be exposed once the sun went down like the moon Saix watched under.

It came to him though that this did not validate his own conclusion, that left him with a yearning. Something still unsatisfactory as he navigated through the forest, kept itching at him. This entire forest was a feeling that he could not feel. Symbols he could see and acknowledge as a part of his target but not fully understand. Anger in the shadows of wolves that howled to no moon. Thorns barricading dead ends and blocking any connections a villager could hope to have with Beast, or perhaps, Xaldin himself. Snow was so thick and cold that even a ministry man from the village could not bring his light through to the castle. The Nobody has his profile of the beast but it simply made him yearn. His confidence in the domination had to be redirected into confidence in himself for without it a crack of cold weakness was shown.

Xaldin had handled the outside threats in much the same manner. The wolves were fast, and vicous, synchronised in packs. Much like the Nobody who howled under a different moon, He had used his swiftness and mobility, watching the Wolves collide into each other from above, on a platform of lances. The heartless birds of prey who feasted on the hearts of those fallen beforehand, who became hardened to the blizzard and intelligent enough to peak around a defensive wall, were matched with a dual wielding counter attack. A shield of lances around one to clasp and pinch peaks, another to spill the shadows over the snow. The noise and shrieks he had hoped would alert the master of the castle to see the strength and prowess of what was coming. A beast was a beast, regardless if the intelligence report capitalized the name. A show of dominance was a part of nature’s call.

This crack was wedged open by sudden vicious movement across the corner of his eyes. With the interruption of his thoughts, a clumsy reactionary lance was sent into a tree trunk. Something had crossed the shadows. A flicker of a cape whose lining had caught in the rays of light between the trees. A warning. Xaldin took this as a sign the gate was near and this was the home stretch. 

Calling a lance through the wind into his hand, he dragged it along the snow behind him. Carving out even more clearly which way he was walking. Stepping on every fallen branch and leaf, making a noise to coax out whatever creature patrolled this forest. The size was bigger than a wolf, the colour too vibrant for a heartless. Grinning at the challenge and at the fact his cohort's reports of the Beast never leaving the castle seemed inaccurate. Those who penetrated the labyrinth that guarded his castle were then eradicated without even a chance on sight it seemed. 

“Is this how you honor your guests? Come to me openly...friend. Not by shadows."

Given the taunt, he tossed the lance like a javelin into a tree trunk in front of him and continued striding forward until the black bars of the gate could start being etched out in the darkness. The rustling continued onwards as the intruder took more steps forward, arms relaxed and eyes remaining forward. Without a heart such, nature’s way of deterring competitors fell flat, but to the Beast who did not know such concepts. The brave intruder’s strength of character showed a heart of clear water much like his own current guest. A swirl of movement and movement lines drawn across the snow as the greeting and revealing was beginning. The shape could now be made out and flecks of purple broke up the endless layers of grey and blue. The Beast’s shape lived up to his name and even the wolves stopped their howling. With weapons strewn across the forest, purposely tracking where the Beast was encircling him from, the Nobody spoke once more when the shadows vanished.

“I have laid down my weapons...” Continuing with open hands, each one of the whirlwind lances struck the snow by his footprints. Flicking his arms out left and right outside the gate splayed his hands and waited. 

The purple shadow darted about left and right behind him, shadows of wolves howled but the Nobody stood firm and true. Winds swirled and no matter how much the shadow himself roared and closed in the winds protected the Nobody. Turning his head around and furrowing his brow a mask of a smile grinned at the cloaked beast, but to see only barred teeth showed back, his face turned sour. Readying a stance. With braids and fur whipping at each other in the wind, both claw and boot stuck firm to the ground. The blizzard stormed up and the Nobody could feel his feet almost being taken by the snow itself but continued the stand off until the Beast gave one more loud roar that sent flocks of crows into the sky

The wind refused to back down and surrounded by the weapons, the Beast drew past the Nobody and opened the gate. There just then, did their shoulders relax. Not a word or motion was said but claws and hands alike were withdrawn into coats and capes. One last glance to confirm as the Beast’s hands let go of the iron to Xaldin’s still face kept a weak intrepid smile. Pulling the cape around him nand shaking out his hair, the Beast led the way, 

It’s thick mane fluffed by the wind made him never see the Nobody’s hand pulling the strings behind him and gaining a sly smile across his face. Following the thick footsteps into the courtyard, the Nobody kept the swing up and wedged the dead open for future entrances. The castle loomed above him, yet looking back now he had breached the gate, the sky was visibly and the canopy retreated. Calling his lances, gripping them in thanks for their service, followed through behind him and throwing a corridor behind him. This was his style, his weapons and he would demonstrate to every nobody who cme through that portal who he was. They had no heart, Xaldin had no need for relationships but he had himself. His heart he would earn from Kingdom eEarts would be delivered and build by his hands. The same fist that made a clutch, the same hand that began to take a small, tiny hold on the Beast’s castle, and soon to be his heart. 


End file.
